Badlands of Dakota

Set in the Dakotas during the days of the Great Gold Boom, the story finds brothers Jim and Bob Holliday (Stack and Broderick Crawford) fighting it out over the affections of pretty Anne Grayson (Ann Rutherford). While all this is going on, Wild Bill Hickok (Richard Dix) does his best to help Jim Holliday neutralise the local criminal element.

"Badlands of Dakota" is an entertaining and engaging western, which mixes the presence of mythical figures from the Wild West, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and General Custer, with comico-dramatic situations. It's an atypical western, oscillating between humor, (burlesque comedy) and dramatization - there's a great cast, from Broderick Crawford and the excellent Richard Dix, and the set pieces and the depiction of Deadwood is great. There's a strong sense of colour and drama as well as some fine action with shootouts, chases ( the Stagecoach sequence with the horses gobe was impressive) and an energetic Sioux attack on Deadwood.

Except most of them were not stars yet. Lively but ordinary western from Universal which, in true Hollywood "respect" of history, throws a variety of famous historical names into the pot with mixed results. The film is perhaps most noteworthy for the cast of familiar film veterans.

The main story has two brothers (Robert Stack and Broderick Crawford) have a fall out over a girl (Ann Rutherford), Crawford turning bad and falling in with some outlaws, lead by Jack McCall (Lon Chaney Jr.). Custer's name is thrown into the mix, as well as that of Wild Bill Hickok, played by Richard Dix who is dressed to look like the lawman but has disappointingly little to do. The sudden recreation of the lawman's famous death is a surprisingly throwaway moment in the film.

Oh, there is also a gun slinging tom girl in buckskins just called "Jane" (played by a beautiful Frances Farmer in one of her final roles). Nobody calls her "Calamity" but the assumption is that's it's her anyway. Hugh Herbert and Andy Devine are also present for the usual comedy relief. The rest of the film, though, is hardly to be taken seriously.

The film moves quickly enough but what plot there is is trivial and uninvolving, not helped by the fact that it's difficult to take Stack seriously in the film's second half when he becomes the new law of Deadwood. Stanley Cortez photographed it all nicely, and you can recognize the same Universal stock music taken from Destry Rides Again, filmed two years before.

A minor quibble: watching Crawford and Chaney share a few scenes together, I was disappointed they didn't get drunk and start to break up the furniture. Maybe they saved that for when the cameras stopped rolling.

Strictly for western buffs,

1941's "Badlands Of Dakota" is a higher budgeted 'B' Western from Universal, with a fascinating cast. Top billed Robert Stack gives the least interesting performance (not really his fault), as Jim Holliday, freewheeling brother of tough saloon owner Bob Holliday (Broderick Crawford); when Bob finds that his girl back east (Ann Rutherford) has decided to marry Jim, he falls in with Deadwood villain Jack McCall (Lon Chaney), whose gang commits raids disguised as native Indians. Of greater interest are the supporting players, Richard Dix as Wild Bill Hickok, and especially Frances Farmer as Jane (minus the 'Calamity'), who carries a torch for Bob, and must play a part in his downfall. With Hugh Herbert, Andy Devine, and Fuzzy Knight, we have an abundance of comic relief, and future Frankenstein Monster Glenn Strange is among Chaney's gang. Broderick Crawford and Hugh Herbert were coming off the comic Poe "The Black Cat"; Chaney and Crawford would work together again in "North to the Klondike," "Not as a Stranger," and "Big House, U. S. A."; Richard Dix soon reunited with Chaney in "Eyes of the Underworld." But in this film, no one can steal the thunder from Frances Farmer, whose commanding presence and captivating beauty prove to have been unique and unforgettable.

Like a number of his earlier works, Badlands of Dakota assisted Broderick Crawford to develop the pained, overachieving Willie Stark he so absorbingly played in ALL THE KINGS MEN. The warpaint he occasionally dons does detract from the seriousness of his delivery but with plot twists like the finale, the paint probably was a welcome cover for his embarrassment. What I did like about the film was the restrained performance of Richard Dix as Wild Bill Hickok and the raw and bitter characterization of Calamity Jane by the exquisite and doomed France Farmer. The film is worth the time spent watching it if only to watch Farmer's swaggering scenes and to hear her deep and soothing voice.

BADLANDS OF DAKOTA (Universal, 1941), directed by Alfred E. Green, is a western featuring an all-star cast headed by the youthful Robert Stack. Though Stack later starred in the popular television series, "The Untouchables" (1959-1963), he was known during his early movie years as the young man who gave Deanna Durbin her first screen kiss in his motion picture debut in FIRST LOVE (Universal, 1939). While Stack's name alone in 1941 was not strong enough to make BADLANDS OF DAKOTA into a top-rated film, veteran actors Richard Dix and Frances Farmer became added attractions, giving this production some added appeal. Ann Rutherford, better known to many film historians as Polly Benedict in the "Andy Hardy" movie series, assumes loan-out assignment duties from MGM working opposite Stack playing the young girl who comes between two brothers.

FORWARD: "A few years after the War between the states - Dakota territory was given to the Sioux Indian nation and patrolled by the Seventh Cavalry under the command of General Custer. In 1874, gold was discovered and Custer was unable to keep out the hordes of white settlers who swarmed into the territory. Thus was born Deadwood, a red, raw town in a burned out gulch." Following brief scenes involving wagon trains traveling west and the building of the town called Deadwood, Speed (Andy Devine) is introduced as the master of ceremonies presenting some upcoming acts that are to be performed at the Bella Union, a saloon owned by Bob Holliday (Broderick Crawford). Bob's youngest brother, Jim (Robert Stack), takes advantage of those fearing Bob's rough exterior by cheating at cards and getting drunk at the bar. Having been in Deadwood for six months after being talked into staying by Bob, Bob decides to have his irresponsible brother do him a favor by heading back to their hometown of St. Louis to bring back with him Anne Grayson (Ann Rutherford), the girl Bob intends to marry. While Jim has known Anne during their childhood days, he is surprised finding the once homely little girl to be an attractive 22 year-old woman. During their venture home by riverboat, Jim first makes the acquaintance of a gambler by the name of James Butler Hickok, better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok (Richard Dix), and later falls in love with Anne, marrying her during the boat's stop at Fort Pierre. Disappointed by the news of their marriage given to him by Jane (Frances Farmer), who loves Bob (who only looks upon her as a business partner), Bob joins a group of bandits headed by Jack McCall (Lon Chaney Jr.) doing a series of stagecoach holdups while at the same time appoints his weakling brother as the new town marshal more out of for vengeance than as a favor to him.

The supporting cast also consists of Hugh Herbert ("Rocky" Flemmer, bartender/fire chief); Fuzzy Knight ("Hurricane" Harry); Addison Richards (George Armstrong Custer); Bradley Page (Chapman); and Samuel S. Hinds (Anne's hard-of-hearing Uncle Wilbur). Dwight Latin, Guy Bonher and Walter Carlson, credited as The Jesters, play musical entertainers performing such tunes as: "McNamara's Band," "We're Going to Have a Big Time Tonight" and "No One to Love." Of its cast members, Frances Farmer, billed simply as Jane, stands out as the character inspiration of Calamity Jane. Dressed in pants, buckskin clothes and western hat, her character is very much the tough talking, bar drinking and jealous nature Calamity Jane, and different style to the same character as portrayed by Jean Arthur in THE PLAINSMAN (Paramount, 1936). Unlike other movies about Calamity Jane's involvement with Wild Bill Hickok, BADLANDS OF DAKOTA shifts gears by having her more to the liking of Bob Holliday. Her involvement with Wild Bill Hickok, excellently played by Richard Dix, is barely existent here. Dix, sporting curly hair and mustache, is given little to do, which is surprising. His character is around long enough for attention, but other than gambling scenes, actually comes to Deadwood Gulch to find gold, and being more observant to Stack's activities than being a participant. Lon Chaney Jr., shortly before his achievement in horror films such as THE WOLF MAN (1941) and its sequels, plays a cattle thief known to Hickok for being the one who shot the Kansas Kid in Abilene in the back. Willie Fung resumes his stereotypical role of a Chinese laundryman, while Glenn Strange is seen with Chaney as one of his henchmen.

Aside from Robert Stack playing a weakling turned into a town marshal, reminiscent but not superior to James Stewart's classic take in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (Universal, 1939), BADLANDS OF DAKOTA doesn't disappoint with typical western action-packed style of gun shooting, Indian attacks, cavalry rescues, and so much more crammed into its 74 minutes. If the plot in general doesn't prove interesting, then the impressive casting of its players or runaway stagecoach scene involving Fuzzy Knight should.

Not seen regularly on commercial television since the 1970s (notably New Jersey station, Channel 68, in 1978), BADLANDS OF DAKOTA has turned up decades later on cable television's Encore Channel. Due to its latter day viewings, the film overall should be a worthy rediscovery for western film buffs or anyone unaware of its existence. Overlooking the plot toying with historic facts and characters, BADLANDS OF DAKOTA, with comedic overtones, is fast-paced and surprisingly well-done. (**1/2)